Admit it, Titans Nation. For a moment or two during the first half of Sunday’s AFC title game at Kansas City, when your Tennessee Titans twice led the Chiefs by 10 points, you surely thought this Super Bowl dream just might come true.
Derrick Henry, who’s pretty much been crowned King Henry over the past month, and more than deservedly so, was again running it pretty well. The Tennessee defense was having its moments against quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Heck, the Titans even kicked a field goal, which is something they’d managed to avoid for a month or more.
But then Kansas City woke up, much as it had a week earlier against Houston. It’s actually somewhat to the Titans’ credit that the final score was only 35-24 and could have been closer. They once again showed how tough and determined this team really is, even if it couldn’t quite pull off a third straight postseason road win.
What was it Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan said Thursday, his comment a studied observation rather than trolling for a perceived insult or slight with which to rally around?
“Kansas City is faster than us,” he noted before that day’s practice. “It is what it is.”